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Friday, July 8, 2011

The Love of Dogs

Today I made these tasty little treats for our dog Lilly. She LOVES our blueberry soft serve (who wouldn't), so I decided to come up with a treat recipe for her, based off of that. These little banana blueberry bites are just the thing! Lilly, the tough critic that she is, gave her paw of approval!

She was such a good little girl, waiting patiently for her treats.

Look at all these treats!

These are somewhat like soft, crispy muffins- Lilly likes that kind of thing :)

Directions
Preheat oven to 350. Cover a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
Put the banana, blueberries, and milk in a food processor. Process until smooth. (You could also use a non-frozen banana and put these three ingredients in the blender).
Pour into a medium sized bowl. Add the remaining ingredients. Stir until thoroughly combined. Drop rounded balls onto parchment covered cookie sheet. I made mine small for a small dog- teaspoon size. Bake for 10-12 minutes (longer if you make larger treats) until crispy on the outside. Transfer to a cooling rack. Once cool, store in an airtight container in the fridge for a week. Keep extra treats in the freezer!

Share these with your dogs and dog friends!
Spoiled much?

This was her spot on the couch last night. And we wondered why she didn't want to leave it to come to bed.

Anyone who is a fellow dog lover understands wanting the best for our pets! It breaks my heart when I see neglected dogs. There are SO many stray dogs in Charlotte, I see them fairly often and almost always try to get them to come to me so that I can bring them to a shelter. Most of the time they are so frightened (for MANY understandable reasons, I am sure) that they run away. Why people get dogs and then don't take care of them, I will never understand.

Anyone looking to be a dog owner should definitely consider rescuing a dog. There are so many out there that need homes! If not a rescue, at least from a reputable breeder. A lot of people don't realize this, but buying pets from pet stores most likely means supporting puppy mills, because reputable breeders do not sell to pet stores. Here is a short article about rescuing and choosing the right breeder. This is another short article on choosing a puppy/dog that is right for your family (and the importance of not supporting puppy mills). If you are by any chance in the Charlotte area, Project Halo is one no-kill shelter that you could look into supporting or adopting a dog from. You can also visit the ASPCA website and search for adoptable dogs in your area.

For a long time, my dream dog was a Malti-Tzu (half Maltese half Shih Tzu). I finally got her after much research and let downs. I called several "breeders" that seemed very shady and would not let me come visit the puppies on premise. "Breeders" who also didn't have a picture of the mom/dad dog to send me. FINALLY after much searching I found Lilly! We drove to Winston Salem to see her as well as both her mom and dad... and we brought her home that day! This is the first day with us- we put her next to a wine bottle to show how little she was.

And then we put her in our picnic basket. I can't believe she was little enough to fit in here!

So many of the dogs that end up in shelters in New Hampshire are actually transported from the South. When I bought Cooper I had tried to rescue a Poodle from the local rescue and was turned down because I had never had a poodle before and do not have a fenced in yard (Cooper gets walked a minimum 2 miles a day).

After putting a deposit down, a rescue in Georgia contacted me on twitter. They told me that next time they would gladly adopt to me. They sometimes end up with purebred poodle puppies, breeders think the mom isn't taking and turn her into the shelter.

I'm working on a "dogs are not vegan" post (based on nutrition discussion I have had with my vet about performance nutrition for dogs), but vegan special treats are wonderful for them, I'm sure she loves your loving care.

The south does seem to be way worse in terms of people taking care of their dogs! That's too bad about the shelter turning you down because you had never had a poodle before- sometimes they can be TOO strict when trying to look out for the best interest of the dog! But now you have Cooper! Dogs are definitely not designed to be vegan- I totally agree. I do wish I knew more reliable places to get dog food from... (as far as organic, properly treated animals that are being raised for meat, etc) but I do at least try to buy a high quality one. Lilly loves her veggies too :)

I havn't really seen an ethical movement in dog food yet. I wish there was one. I know a lot of the beef in dog food comes from old dairy and breeding cows (less quality needed), so I like to imagine that they didn't come from a disgusting feedlot.